My name is Andrés Aravena. I am a Chilean researcher with a background quite uncommon in Turkey.
- Mathematical Engineer, U. of Chile
- PhD Informatics, U Rennes 1, France
- PhD Mathematical Modeling, U. of Chile
- not a Biologist
- but an Applied Mathematician who can speak “biologist language”
I’m co-author of several papers and patents granted in Argentina (3 patents), Australia (5), Chile (3), China (1), Mexico (5), Peru (2), South Africa (5) and USA (4). This research was essential for the development of biotechnological tools that had significant impact in the biggest industries of Chile: mining, fish farming, fruit production and wine.
I co-created and developed methods to identify new genes involved in Alzheimer’s disease, to monitor and control the presence of microorganisms in high-quality wine production, to reduce the usage of hormones in the production of seedless grapes and to improve the immune response in farmed salmons, avoiding the irrational use of antibiotics.
The most important part of my research, before coming to Turkey, was the development of biotechnological tools to improve the copper mining process, which corresponds to over 65% of chilean exports. This was a national strategic goal and affects the national budget in a significant way. To achieve these results, my former group used genomics (we was the first one sequencing a full genome in Chile), transcriptomics (designing and analyzing microarrays and qPCR experiments), metabolomics (building metabolic models and measuring metabolite concentrations using ad-hoc mass spectrometry) and metagenomics (developing theoretical and experimental tools to monitor the taxonomic composition of environmental samples).
I’m currently Assistant Professor at the Molecular Biology and Genetics Department of Istanbul University, where I teach “Methodology of Scientific Research” and “Systems Biology”. My current research focus on the analysis of ancient DNA metagenomic data from archeological specimens using probabilistic methods.
Türkçe bilmiyorum 😟 (yet)
I’ve worked on
- Big and small computers
- Telecommunication Networks
- Between 2003 and 2014 I was the chief research engineer
- on the main bioinformatic group in my country (MATHomics)
- in the top research center (Center for Mathematical Modeling)
- in the top university of my country (University of Chile)
Before coming to Istanbul I worked on some very interesting projects.
If you are interested, you can see my CV in short or long format.